Fantasia

LXXXI

Eddy blankly stared into the wide, vast sky over Sydney.

He did it! He really just quit his job!

It took all he had to not jump up and down, squeal like a little child getting candy and thus waking all those poor patients in the rooms neighboring the floor to ceiling window at the end of the hallway which had become very dear to him these last two days.

"Everything all right?", Alan asked when Eddy came back to Brett's room.
"Never better!", Eddy smiled at him and really, really meant it. Alan eyed him curiously. "Okay..."
"Let him be, son! If he has something to share, he will!", Mrs. Chen scolded her younger son with a stern gaze. Eddy chuckled.
"Actually, I just quit my job."
"WHAT?", Alan shouted, causing the rest to jump.
"Alan, please!", Mrs. Yang hissed, rubbing her hurting ears.
"Sorry...", he muttered, "but dude, why?"
Before Eddy could say anything, Brett's mum did. Quietly, almost solemnly. "You're following your heart."
Eddy looked at her and closed his half open mouth. He nodded.
"You'll do music?", Eric followed up.
"Probably. To some extend at least."
"You want to play the violin", Mrs. Yang specified.
Eddy nodded again. "I have no idea how I'm gonna work this out and I still need to work for another three months until I can actually leave. And it's not like I've been playing these past years."
"You play well", Eric assured Eddy, actually making his heart a bit lighter in the process. "Take this from a musician's dad."
"I mean, I was going to quit eventually anyway, but I think the main reason why it has to happen now is...", Eddy laid his eyes on Brett again, on this perfect, procelain white face, "...I really want Brett to wake up. And I feared by not initiating a real change, it might not happen."

This time, there were no follow-up questions of any sort. They just all looked at Brett, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Have you told your mother?", Mrs. Yang asked quietly, hitting a nerve there.
"No", he shook his head, "She knows nothing. She doesn't even know I was struggling at my job. I kept it from her to not burden her."
"You mentioned she might come here next week, right?"
"Yes. She'll tell me when she knows when she's going to arrive. She's going to stay at the same hotel where I am."
"Do you want me to talk to her?"
Surprised about this admittedly very tempting proposition, Eddy turned his head. "You would do that?"
"With everything you're doing for Brett? Of course!"
Eddy was intrigued to say the least. Hell, if he'd have a chance to dodge the wrath of his mum, he'd normally take it without hesitation. However, he knew exactly that he had to tell her himself.
So he shook his head. "No. I'm going to call her today, so she can still decide if she wants to see me after this."
"Don't you want to tell her in person?", Alan asked.
"I'd like to, of course. But I think she'd rather have the news faster."
Brett's mum bobbed her head. "I would too, if I'd be her. But don't worry, Eddy." And the smile she gave him automatically let him straighten his back. "We're here for you. Just like you are for Brett."
Eddy blinked at her whilst trying to keep his emotions in check at least a tiny bit. Yeah, if his mum would reject him after what he'd pulled, that would suck big time. He couldn't, didn't want to, in fact, imagine the misery he would have to deal with. However, knowing that there was another family he could turn to was such a relief, so comforting, that Eddy felt he could face whatever was lying in front of him.

And if Brett would wake up, that was all the motivation, all the strength he needed to deal with any challenge life would throw at him.

A nearly untouched hospital lunch, some violin playing for Brett and his family, which was mediocre at best and half an hour of strolling through the hospital gardens on which Mrs. Yang insisted on because she sensed his nervousness. That's what it took for Eddy to finally kick his own butt and dial the phone number of his childhood home while digging a trench with all the walking up and down he did in the hallway leading to the by now very familiar, tall window.
Every beep was a bell, anouncing his aproaching doom. He gulped heavily in order to not throw up on the spot.

"Hello?"
"Hi mum. How are you doing?"
"Eddy! Good! I think I'll be arriving next Monday, so we'll have a whole week together. What do you think? Is it too long?" His mum sounded upbeat, happy. Was he really about to destroy her good mood?
"That's great! Not too long at all!" That was, if she still wanted to come after hearing what he had to say. "Shall I book a room for you?"
"No, no, son. I can do that myself."
"If you say so. Listen mum..." He gulped again.
"Yes?", she asked. Happy, upbeat.
"I have some news concerning my job."
"Oh! You're finally getting that promotion you've been working hard for?"
"Uhm, technically yes...", Eddy stuttered, instantly cursing himself for providing her that very unhelpful information.
"That's great! Congratulations!", she exclaimed and Eddy's hands got colder and sweatier by the minute.
"No, but listen, mum!"
"What else?"
"I quit!"

Yeah, he could have delivered the punch line softer and he would have. In another universe, where his heart wasn't beating out of his chest. Here and now however, there was just one way: To get it out of his system asap.

It got very, very quiet on the other end. Scenes from when he'd found his mum on her bed more than a decade ago, liveless, cold, barely breathing flipped through his brain like a broken slide show.

Shit. Shit!! Shit!!!

All his studies, his hard work, his position in the firm. He'd done it for his mum. He'd done it to protect her.

Had all that been futile all along?